The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1887-01-07

and the handling of stock on the farm.
For we read in an agricultural paper from |
the pen of o gifted demagogue the inn |
portance Of work 80 and SO, manaG Ing |
and feeding Of stock in this or that way, |
when Ii in either case should one at
tempt TO follow the path marked out by |
them, the result wo lid be the same as
following Horace Greeley's course of
farming, pay out 5000 10 get 5000. |
That is we'll enough and not especially |
detrimental ut large to the surrounding |
community when practired by an indi-
v.dual who has more means at his COM |
mand that he well can dispose ofthrough |
an economical course Of management,
or in other words more money than
brains. Butte the ordinary man on the |
farm all this advice and the theorizing
Is of little or no account. What we
want is practical thoughts and economi-
cal applications in all classes of farming,
whether raising grain, feeding stock, |
milking cows, making butter and cheese,
or expanding the proceeds of the re-
suits obtained through and by the hard |
labor necessary on farm to accomplish |
results satisfactory in order TO make
farming desirable and profitable occu-
patton. Many an individual starts out
To run farm with high anticipations,
bouyant with expectations of wealth in
short time with u small capital, conse-
duently necessitated to run into debt for
many things, and with the crazy, vision
airy thing called theory predominant
in his Uranium, struggles on for a year
or two, or may be longer, and not hav-
ing applied or understood the practical
necessity for success makes failure;
and not having realized up to his start
out anticipations, throwing the thing up
in utter disgust, and from thence hence
forth considers farming low calling
as Improbable, and his influence is Of
ten felt in years afterwards TO the detri-
ment of many with whom he may be-
come associated with. Such moves and
results prove detriment hard to erase
| from the minds and recollections
of the theorizing mass who look on. But
not 30 with the sturdy, practical farmer,
who is governed by good common sense
and careful movements, judicial manage
ment and economical expenditures.
| He upon the contrary, gradually advan-
ces, slow but sure, pays his debts, buys
only what he can pay for, and after n
little arises in the scale OF success, till
eventually he is numbered among the
well-healed class. Though not so veal
thy as some of the speculative class, he
enjoys freedom and independence to
be envied by almost king Never
having tasted of that sickly ambition nor
experienced that morbid sensibllity
of disgust experienced by the visionary
theorist farmer, and having owned q
farm as long as ! have owned
anything and most of the time given
my personal supervision to it, will
here state what / call practical farming
In Minnesota.
Have your tools all in readiness at the
season to commence using them.
i Pillow your land early in the fail.
Don't try to carry ON too many acres, but
what you handle, handle in earnest and
to q purpose, Early blowing, say in Aug
ust or September, is a practical summer
fallow. A summer fallow is a practical
coat of manure or fertilization. After
blowing aud before freezing comes on
level all your blowing with q harrow,
ready for the seed, thereby facilitating
early sowing and giving the ground q
chance to become more firm and solid,
thereby increasing the power of the soil
to Withstand drouth or excessive wet.
Sow early and put in your crop well and
be on time in every move pertaining to
of the same. This only can be done by
trying not to handle too many acres, but
you will find an increase in bushels pei
acre to offset the let up in number OF
acres. Sow clover on every acre of small
grain you put in. If you are tilling one
hundred acres and have only help to till
fifty acres. divide your farm, till fifty in.
TO crops this year, pillow the other fifty
with a good coat of clover on it) during
the summer, and the next year crop
that fifty acres. and you will find to your
surprise and satisfaction larger yield
from the fifty than you formerly had
from the one hundred, and having done
only about half the labor of former
years-a large saving in labor, a great en-.
hancement in value Of richness to soil
and reduction of weeds, the most un.
profitable crop grown. Plow yonr corn
ground in August for the next years
crop, and you will find larger and longer
ears and less weeds when you harvest
BY so doing your land is firmer, your
team works on it easier, your weeds
start earlier, your cultivation proves
more satisfactory and your crop yield
(not4.ss weeds) much larsar. Plant your
corn on your fall blowing without any
labor put on in the spring, only mark
ing; as soon as your planting is done
give your field through cultivation
one way before your corn comes up
Throw the dirt on to the row of corn
then when your corn begins to show
drag your field thoroughly cross-ways,
and you will find q large amount of work
done with a small amount of labor
Drain your low land, as fast as you can,
by thing it. Put your tile deep and
give proper fail, say if possible, inch
to the rod, and you will be satisfied with
the results. Don't save your low wet
g., and raaadnxu ipL
that is economy, but drain your land
pillow it, SOW it to tame grasses, not June
grass, or as some like to call it blue grass,
for that is too tame, and if you SOW too
much of it you will be soon blue enough
yourself without the grass. Give me
land can handle and will make my
pasture and meadow to my own taste,
and by that method you can rotate your
crops and enrich your soil by doing 30.
Get out all of your manure, for. in no
place or locality that have ever been
will the soil respond to a little fertiiiza-
ton quicker than here. For by manur-
ing you get but little more straw, but a
large amount more of grain. One acre
of good soil into clover and timothy will
| produce as much pasture and meadow
as two or three, or even more of wild
grass, and if you get more acres of. tame
|
the seed of timothy or clover always
meets with ready cash safe at as re.
munerative prices as any other crop you
can raise, and look forward with ex-
pectations that Minnesota viii ere long
be ranked with the first states in the
Union as seed producing part of the
Union, and furnish 10 those who engage
in it as crop surprising amount of re-
turn for the labor devoted to it. Take
care of your tools, put them under cover.
1t will pay you much better than to
leave them in the field where you en-
hitch from them when through using
them for the season. Improve your
stock as fast as you can consistent with
your means. Keep only what you keep
good and give good care.
COUNTY CORRESPONDENCE.